


Part of the Equation

by watermelonriddles



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: A lot heavier on the feelings though lol, F/M, Hot Tub Sex, Porn with Feelings, Post-Canon, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:35:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24013708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watermelonriddles/pseuds/watermelonriddles
Summary: “This place is alright,” Rio starts, glancing around, before looking back at [Beth]. He steps impossibly closer, head tilting to the side a little. She clocks the way his hand twitches, wonders if he’s gonna push her hair out of her face like he used to. He doesn’t. “But ain’t nobody hanging out here for fun.”“Maybe I just wanted to take a dip.” She knocks back the rest of her drink, settling the glass on the edge of the hot tub. It’s dangerous but he’s far too close and she’s not used to it. The smell of him and the heat radiating from him, it’s intoxicating. He doesn’t need to know that she’s not nearly drunk enough, hardly even qualifies as tipsy, to be this bold. She looks right at him, stands a little straighter. “You wanna join me?”Rio smiles softly but she can see the amusement dancing in his eyes.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 32
Kudos: 212





	Part of the Equation

**Author's Note:**

> **Post 3x11, set several months into the future.**
> 
> Sooo, after seeing that brio scene at the end of 3x11, I just knew I had to write something and when I saw [**these tweets**](https://twitter.com/iamydunne/status/1257146005335814144) I definitely knew I had to write it, haha. Anyway, this was supposed to just be Beth and Rio fucking in a hot tub but then feelings got involved so enjoy that, haha.

It’s almost an hour after closing, nearing the end of the week, and Beth sits alone in the office, a bottle of bourbon on the desk next to a freshly poured glass. It’s not her usual job but she’d offered to close up for the night so that Dean could spend some one on one time with the kids, something that, surprisingly enough, he had been asking for. She’s pretty sure he’ll just give them sugar, watch a movie, maybe take them to his mother’s house for an extra pair of hands. Still, Beth’s not concerned. It’s the closest thing to a night off and some alone time that she’s had in months.

It feels almost cruel when she spots _him_ in the showroom, winding his way between the hot tubs, looking at each of them as he makes his way towards the office. She reaches for her glass and stands, heading out into the showroom to meet him before he gets too close. He’s dressed more casually than she’s seen him in a while. A black hoodie with a dark grey t-shirt underneath. When he looks up at her, he grins, hand running over the top of his head, pushing his hood down.

“Hey, ma.”

Beth keeps walking until they’re standing across from one another with a hot tub between them. It feels safer having a physical barrier as well as the emotional one. They might not be at each other’s throats anymore but she can’t bring herself to open up around him again.

She takes a sip of her drink. “We’re closed.”

Rio snorts, glancing around. “Ain’t you gonna make an exception?”

“Why?” She takes another sip. “You want a hot tub?”

“Nah, I told Mick he could always have first dibs.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, he _really_ wanted that one Dean got for him.”

“Well, it’s gone to good use.”

It’s sudden where her mind goes. Wondering if he knows that because he’s used it too. She can just imagine him sinking down into the water, putting his head back. Her eyes instantly go to his throat tattoo, starting at the tip of one wing and slowly moving across to the tip of the other. She sees him swallow and she imagines the droplets of water that would run down, down, down. It takes her far too long to realise her gaze has also moved down and she coughs, eyes darting up to his.

He’s smirking. Of course, he’s smirking. It makes her scoff and take another drink. “What do you want?”

“Can’t I just drop by?” Rio asks, his lip jutting out and eyes growing wide in that way he does when he’s trying to act all innocent. “Check in on my business.”

“My business,” she corrects. “You just pushed your way in.”

“Remember you doing the same with my pharmacy.”

“I let you keep half of it.”

Rio lets out a laugh. Something soft, barely audible. “That what you want?” He makes his way around the hot tub to her side, looking her up and down as he goes. “Or nah, you want more?” He touches his chest. “Maybe wanna test your aim again?”

“You know I can’t do that,” she tells him.

He continues to look amused, nodding his head slightly. “‘Cause of the feds?”

She watches him carefully, hopes he doesn’t see the way she swallows around the lump in her throat but of course, he clocks it. Before he can comment, she shrugs. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

His brow furrows as he watches her again only this time it’s a lot more attentive. They’ve been back to this point a few times over the past few months. Constantly being reminded of the three bullets she put into him and how, if it hadn't been for Phoebe, they’d probably still be aiming to kill each other.

Beth sometimes wonders if he’ll still do it. Find a way that won’t draw attention, a reason why he doesn’t need her. She knows she’s pushed back into a corner. There’s no way she could pull the trigger again and hiring a hitman was just asking for the FBI to arrest her. And then there’s him. She watches him carefully, his brow still furrowed and a frown etching its way onto his face. Months of dancing around the FBI, forced to work with him to make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes they did with Turner, was exhausting but she found her need to get rid of him slowly slipping away. It scares her, not knowing she can ever truly trust that he won’t want to kill her again once they really are in the clear.

It took her a while to fully realise that’s what it was. That she didn’t care if he was involved in her business or popping up like a damn genie all the time. It was that instinct to survive. It had driven her desire to want to get rid of him, to be able to breathe again but now? She’s been able to breathe, even with him in her space and it’s bearable at least. That drive to get rid of him has gone and now when she looks at him, she doesn’t want to think about where they are or where they might go because it feels too unreliable, too unstable. It doesn’t help that they don’t talk about it. Not properly anyway. He still keeps her at arm’s length and hell, she does the same thing. That wall between them is stronger than ever because she can’t handle another fallout.

“Maybe I should ask what you’re doing here still,” Rio comments and when he looks at her, his face is blank. His eyes go to her glass as she swirls the remaining contents. “All alone.”

“Maybe I like being alone.”

He hums. “What’s on your mind, mama?”

She shrugs, offering up a small smile. “My alone time’s been interrupted.”

“My company that bad?”

“Suffocating.” It’s half a lie.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I know that feeling. Still...” He looks her up and down standing close enough that they’re almost chest to chest. “Misery loves company, yeah?”

Beth blinks at him. She doesn’t like that. How he looks at her like he knows her deep into her core. That he doesn’t even have to rip her open to see what lies beneath. She hates it more that she knows how much she misses it when he stops. “Who says I’m miserable?”

“This place is alright,” Rio starts, glancing around, before looking back at her. He steps impossibly closer, head tilting to the side a little. She clocks the way his hand twitches, wonders if he’s gonna push her hair out of her face like he used to. He doesn’t. “But ain’t nobody hanging out here for fun.”

“Maybe I just wanted to take a dip.” She knocks back the rest of her drink, settling the glass on the edge of the hot tub. It’s dangerous but he’s far too close and she’s not used to it. The smell of him and the heat radiating from him, it’s intoxicating. He doesn’t need to know that she’s not nearly drunk enough, hardly even qualifies as tipsy, to be this bold. She looks right at him, stands a little straighter. “You wanna join me?”

Rio smiles softly but she can see the amusement dancing in his eyes. “Yeah?”

“You’re always welcome to leave.”

Beth turns away from him before he can respond and makes her way towards the backroom. She reminds herself that he’ll back down, that it’ll all piss him off and he’ll leave her in peace to drink her bourbon and hell, maybe even order a takeaway. For now, she keeps her head high, tries not to think about him following her because he is. She can hear him.

In the backroom, she gravitates to the hot tub that’s still filled with water. She stops beside it and looks over at him, still hanging back by the door. He looks between her and the tub. He’s unreadable which isn’t new but it makes her hopeful that maybe he’s had enough of this already. That he’ll finally get to the point of why he’s shown up or just leave.

He motions towards the tub. "You always do this?"

"We haven't sold this model before," she offers up, reminding herself that she needs to draw this out if she wants him to get fed up. "Whenever that happens, we like to see how it works. It arrived not too long before closing."

"You ever get in one to test it?"

"No one is allowed in," Beth says, ignoring the way his gaze dips down her body. "We just like to see. To know what we're talking about without relying on the product description."

"But you don't know what it feels like," he points out.

"Like any other hot tub, I'd assume."

Rio smiles as he watches her closely. “What are we doing here, Elizabeth?”

“I know what I’m doing here,” she tells him, fingers dipping into the water. “I don’t know what you’re doing here.”

“Maybe I’m taking you up on your offer,” he says. “Unless you wanna take it back?”

“Or you could just tell me why you’re really here.”

He gestures around vaguely. “Maybe this is why I’m here.”

“To get into a hot tub with me?”

"Ain't got any other plans."

She sighs, lifting her fingers from the water and wiping them against her jeans. "We both know we're going to get really tired of this game sooner rather than later."

"What game?" He shrugs out of his hoodie and lets it fall to the ground as he makes his way over to her. "I ain't playing around."

 _"Rio,"_ she warns.

Once he's right in front of her, he lifts his shirt up over his head and lets it fall to the ground as well. She tries not to look but her eyes zero in on his scars. She's never seen them before and she can't decide if they're better or worse than she imagined. When she looks at him, she wonders if this is his plan. If he’s hoping to push her off-kilter in a way that’ll really drive the knife in because he can’t _actually_ drive a knife in but before she can say anything, even _think_ about relenting, he grabs her hand and presses her palm to the scar at his shoulder.

Beth’s breath hitches. Her heart’s already erratic. It wouldn’t surprise her if he could hear it. His thumb rubs circles at the back of her hand and it takes her a moment to realise that he’s waiting for her to just take a breath. 

She inhales slowly and he guides her hand down to the next scar. As her palm presses over it, she exhales. He watches her the entire time but she can’t look at him. He’s already too good at seeing her, he doesn’t need to see this. So, instead, she inhales again and he brings her hand down to the final scar where she exhales and lets her eyes drift closed. He presses his hand down over hers.

“Ain’t messing around, mama.”

Beth blinks at him. “What?”

Finally, he does it. He lets go of her hand and reaches up to push her hair out of her face. It makes her lose her breath all over again. It doesn’t help that he leans in and she can feel his breath fanning out over her skin until his lips are right in front of hers, so close that if she were to move even an inch, she could kiss him. She doesn’t though. Forces herself to stay where she is and tries to ignore her own heart and the warmth of him that threatens to drag her in closer.

“Rio,” she whispers, eyes closed, and he hums a little. “We can’t.”

“Nah?”

The mistake she makes is looking at him again. He’s watching her in a way that feels surprisingly open and before she realises what she’s doing, Beth shifts forward and presses her lips to his. They’re soft and warm and as she kisses him, it feels overwhelmingly familiar. He’s already kissing her back before she can even consider pulling away and instead, as his arm wraps around her, holding her close, she practically melts into him.

“I hate you,” she mumbles against his lips because she can already feel the wall crumbling and she just _can’t._

“Feelings mutual.”

Beth shakes her head, pulling back as much as she can with his arm still tight around her. If they’re going to be this stupid, if they’re really going to let this wall crumble into whatever mess is waiting for them then she needs more than that. “I need you to say it.”

He lets out a small defeated sound. “I hate you, too.”

This time when she kisses him, there’s no stopping. They barely pull apart long enough for him to get her sweater up over her head or for them to reach for each other’s jeans or to kick off their socks and shoes. Between chasing each other’s lips, they somehow get down to their underwear. It shocks her how good it feels, how well he fits against her, and how now that she’s given in to it, even an inch away from him feels wrong. When one of them pulls, the other pushes, each giving as much as they take until it’s too much for Beth and she has to pull away.

His arm slips from around her as he turns to the hot tub. He gives her a knowing smile as he pushes his boxers down and she instinctively looks away, only turning back when she hears the sound of the water moving around him as he climbs into the tub and then the sound of the bubbles turning on. He settles down on the side furthest from her and looks at her for a moment before he runs a hand over his face and puts his head back just as she had imagined earlier. She watches the water run down his neck, over his chest.

Making the most of it, she quickly shimmies out of her panties and unhooks her bra, letting them drop to the floor. He begins to raise his head as she climbs into the hot tub but she manages to sink down, the bubbles covering her before he really gets a look. There’s not really that much room but she still sticks to her side. He’s watching her with a lazy smile on his face, something so effortless and genuine, an openness about him that she hasn’t seen since long before he got those scars. It pulls her in like a magnetic.

She looks around the hot tub. There’s plenty to hold onto. Just the feel of him has proven that those walls are already crumbling and there’s nothing left to protect her but perhaps if she tries to put _some_ distance between them it’ll be fine. If he fucks her from behind where she can’t see him, where she can pretend that he’s someone else, will that stop it from feeling like her heart is being pulled into the equation?

“Elizabeth,” he says softly. She blinks at him and he motions with his head. “Come here.”

Despite herself, she slowly pushes across to Rio’s side of the hot tub, until she’s right in front of him. There’s not even a moment to prepare herself before he’s gripping her thigh and tugging her in closer. She settles over him, knees on either side of his hips, hands grasping at his shoulders for balance. She keeps herself raised up above him and his hand gently touches her side, her hip, her thigh.

“You wanna get out?”

“No.”

“You don’t wanna stop?

“I don’t want to stop.” She kisses him, long and slow and she knows she’s not going to sound convincing before she even says it. “I hate you.”

Rio hums. “I hate you, too.”

It surprises Beth that he doesn’t sound all that convincing either but then his hand is between her legs and he’s rubbing at her clit and all she can do is gasp. Her head drops to his shoulder, gasps alternating with moans as he buries his finger inside of her and then slowly another. She rocks her hips against him as he pushes her closer to the edge, opening her up in more ways than one. His fingers are inside of her and his thumb rubbing over her clit when she finally comes. She bites at his shoulder as she does and he curses. She needs to cling to him to stop her legs from giving out and it’s only when he kisses her shoulder, that she lifts away to look at him.

Beth reaches between them and he closes his eyes as she wraps her hand around his cock. He grits his teeth at first before giving away to a moan as she strokes him a couple of times before lining him up. It’s only when he looks right at her that she finally sinks down onto him.

“Give me a second,” she whispers as he grips her hips.

For a moment, she just lets herself concentrate on the bubbles around them, the noise of the machine. And then, when Rio grabs her hand and kisses her wrist, she lifts up until just the tip of his cock is still inside of her and then sinks slowly back down and keeps on repeating that. As she kisses him, biting his bottom lip, he begins to meet her movements, thrusting up into her. It soon becomes erratic. He holds her close and her fingers dig into his shoulders for support and he’s kissing her so hard she’s sure her lips will bruise but it doesn’t matter.

When they’re not kissing, they’re moaning into each other’s mouths. She puts her hand down into the water and he slows his movements just enough so that she can circle her clit. As she begins to gasp and whimper, he fucks her long and slow. He kisses every part of her that he can reach and her fingers never stop until that coil is wound so tight that he gasps when she clenches around him, uttering a barely audible “fuck” under his breath as he kisses her hard. She comes first but he follows not long after, still thrusting as he spills into her and even when he slows to a stop, he continues to kiss her and she continues to hold onto him.

“Come on,” he says, pressing a final kiss to the corner of her mouth before he helps her to lift up and off of him. He stands, pulling her up with him. “Let’s get dry and find some food.”

Beth blinks at him, chewing on her bottom lip. When he looks at her, she thinks he might say something stupid like he’s missed her. It takes a beat for her to realise that the words are on the tip of her own tongue. Instead, she swallows them and nods.

As Rio helps her out of the tub, Beth tries not to think about how her hand feels in his. As he carefully moves across the room to where there are some towels folded up on shelves, she tries not to think about how nice it feels when he drapes it over her shoulders. As he turns away to let her get changed, she tries not to think about how suddenly that privacy feels weird. As he kisses her when they’re both dressed again, she tries not to think about the fact that her heart had already been pulled into the equation a long time ago.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know how convenient it is to have a hot tub filled with water in the backroom of a showroom but Beth and Rio already have enough hurdles in their way so I wasn't about to make it even harder over something so trivial ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
